Call it the first
gift of the season, ahead of Hanukkah (beginning Dec. 8), ahead of
Christmas (Dec. 25), ahead of a new year that could promise fitness and
pleasure for any who choose — a massive life-quality package delivered
to 635,000 Lee County residents, courtesy of Don and Darla, Steve, Ken,
Dan and countless other private citizens and local government officials
who jammed hard for years to make it happen.

The gift: Lee is now a county made safe for pedaling, not just gas-combustioning.

Bicyclists can ride to or from Sanibel Island, for example, to east
Lee County, Lehigh Acres, Gateway, FGCU, the JetBlue Red Sox stadium,
the major parks, Fort Myers Beach, Bonita Springs and Estero — and they
can continue riding right down into Collier County, without getting run
over.

A new report by the private, nonprofit BikeWalkLee, the citizens’
engine that helped power up government awareness and passionate interest
in “complete streets,” lays out what’s available and accessible to
residents in each of five cities, along with the unincorporated
neighborhoods of the county.
The Tour de Parks loop is a continuous 32-mile stretch of bicycle-safe paths. However, the report suggests that much work remains to be done.

“As noted in the (2009) master plan,” wrote Darla Letourneau, a
BikeWalkLee founder, “Lee County has significant bicycle and pedestrian
facilities but they are fragmented. The plan identified 668 miles of
bicycle gaps and 758 miles of sidewalk gaps.”

But the gaps are closing. In one of many examples, 2.2 miles of new
bike lanes completed in Cape Coral “actually resulted in a new 17-mile
connected loop,” Ms. Letourneau noted.
Long, safe paths Meanwhile
the gift, if you will, comes ribboned in two special features — two
loops — that together comprise 65 miles of bicycle-safe paths, finally
laid down, connected and marked by signage for any and all pedaling
comers.

But those two loops, the Tour de Parks (roughly 32 miles, visiting
eight parks or special sites) and the University Loop (33 miles or so),
are only part of ongoing improvements across major intersections, and
through neighborhoods and locations where bicycling once would have been
considered impossible or highly dangerous.

“There has been a sea change in the way the Lee County Department of
Transportation (in particular the Metropolitan Planning Organization, or
MPO) is looking at road projects,” says Steve Rodgers, president of the
Caloosa Riders Bicycle Club.

Now, a road doesn’t get designed or improved without planners
considering if and how they should include paths for bicyclists and
pedestrians, he explains.

Officials are also using grants, federal money, state money and local
money — roughly $2.5 million from per year from Lee taxpayers,
according to Don Scott, director of the MPO — to put in not only bike
paths, sidewalks and wider shoulders, but kiosks and special “wayfarer”
signs, along with bike-safe crossing opportunities at major
intersections.

And all of it is designed to help connect the already extant hundreds of miles of bicycle lanes or paths.

Mr. Scott suggests that in future, no retrofitting should need to
occur. It costs roughly 10 times more to retrofit a major road for bike
and pedestrian use.

“The biggest bang for the buck is doing a larger project and making sure you include bike/ped in it up front,” he explains.

“Better facilities equals better access and better use, which not
only helps those who already ride but encourages others to try it out,”
argues Ken Gooderham, a BikeWalkLee member and a longtime bicyclist.

For all of the improvements, Lee County still falls short of many
exceptional communities in the United States, where planners and
citizens worked together to create compellingly accessible complete
streets for all users — Portland, Ore., or Austin Tex., or Boulder,
Colo., to name several examples.

“For the number of square miles in Lee County (804 on the ground),
our facilities are now average,” says Ms. Letourneau. “But we’ve come
from a deficit to get there, and we have a ways to go to become
extraordinary.”

Mr. Gooderham suggests a good way to think about the future, and act on it in the present.
“Think less about getting from Point A to Point B and more about
making bicycling a seamless part of the transportation alternatives in
Lee County, so commonplace that people don’t even need to think about it
or make it a big deal anymore,” he advises.

“The county’s complete streets policy is a great start, and county
officials have been embracing it with more enthusiasm. But the real
driver is people asking why their streets can’t include bike lanes and
sidewalks, and getting out to use them when they’re built. That kind of
bottom-up demand is what will really drive the expansion and enhancement
of the bike/ped infrastructure in this area.” ¦

About BikeWalkLee Blog

This is the official Blog for BikeWalkLee.org. BikeWalkLee is a community coalition raising public awareness and advocating for complete streets in Lee County -- streets that are designed, built, operated and maintained for safe and convenient travel for all users: pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists, and transit riders of all ages and abilities.